BARB_p15 Sam Warburton v3_AS

PROFILE
HISTORY
IN THE
MAKING
Sam Warburton led the
British & Irish Lions to
victory in Australia, and
he’s out to repeat the
feat in New Zealand –
but he won’t be
taking tonight’s
opposition lightly.
WORDS: ALEX MEAD
WHATEVER THE OUTCOME OF TONIGHT’S
game, history is going to be made. It will be
made by a man so humble that, when he
was asked to carry out the prestigious duty
of being a two-time British & Irish Lions
Captain, he actually hung up on the bearer of good news.
“I was in the supermarket car park at the time. My wife was
getting bread and milk,” says Warburton of the day when the
call came from Lions Head Coach Warren Gatland. “I hung
up on Warren first time around – I thought it was the boys
messing around.”
Luckily, Gatland called back, and in April this year,
Warburton was unveiled as only the second man ever
to lead the British & Irish Lions on two tours. “This is
the biggest honour I have had as a player,” Warburton says.
“It definitely ranks as the pinnacle of my career so far.”
That pinnacle is made all the more special by the name
of the man Warburton now has his name alongside in the
history books: Martin Johnson, the Lions Captain in 1997
and 2001. Even as Warburton talks of the esteemed company
in which he now finds himself, his pride is clear.
“I remember watching, as a rugby fan, the 2003 England
World Cup-winning team,” Warburton says. “I grew up
watching Martin Johnson. I can’t believe only two people have
done it twice – I thought it would have been a lot more than
that. It’s an absolute honour to be compared to one of the
world’s all-time greatest players. It’s very strange to think
you’ve achieved the same thing as him.”
Records aside, Rob Howley – who played with Johnson
for the Lions, and who has coached Warburton for both
the Lions and Wales – reckons they share more than just
history-making feats. “The qualities are quite comparable,”
Howley says. “Sam doesn’t say too much, and Johnno was
exactly the same. ‘Just go and do it’ – they were the famous
Johnno words, and Sam is like that.”
DHL NEW ZEALAND LIONS SERIES 2017 // 15
BARB_p14-17 Sam Warburton v3_AS.indd 15 18/05/2017 22:41